GCNE Meeting/Rehearsal 12-12-10

Victor, Glenn, Brad, Rick, Dev, Chris

C sloshes in around 8:30 while the rest of the Circle Thraks, Circulates and Batracho's. With all arriving group members now present, a moment is taken to check sound using recently-acquired PA speakers.

With the performance series drawing near, V suggests that the group continue to run through repertoire, to refresh and to see how the Circle is faring with various pieces of the past, present and (later) future. It falls upon the late arrival to call the set:

Calliope;
Flying Home;
Prelude from Bach's WTC;
(an attempt is made to call Third Relation);
Chrysanthemum;
Love is Green (a few false takes required);
Bicycling to Afghanistan (with B on Bass and G sitting out to balance the sound);
Opening.

The latter piece has a new bass part being introduced to it and is given special attention; D picks it up quickly and the full group is given a hearing, to general approval. V is confident to finally extend the arrangement to its scored length, though work is still needed.

Break at 9:54. During this time, it is noted that Martin B. gives excellent, if not bear-like, hugs.

Returning to practice, V expresses concern over persistent rushing (the unintentional speeding-up of tempo) that is present in the group's handling of pieces. In his experience, solid time comes from having a holistic vantage of the sequence in motion; for example, rather than having one's attention absorbed by the difficulty of a single passage or section, one is aware of all parts of the music while the action is taking place. To do this, he proffers, a part of the performer needs to be relaxed, regardless of the intensity of what is going on around (the 'point' of vantage, for instance).

Following this, the group dedicates some time to working through B's arrangement of Debussy's The Sunken Cathedral. Nobody is 'off-book' with this piece yet, and there is no complete recital of it. However, each section is addressed, and it seems promising that the arrangement will soon be on its feet.

To close the evening, Askesis! and a second hearing of Batrachomyomachy, with R counting in.

The meeting ends at 11:40.

GCNE Meeting, 12-05-2010, The Loft

In attendance: Victor McSurely, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes. The rest of the circle is out due to various circumstances.

8 pm finds Victor and Brad beginning to swap out the speakers in the loft's PA system for the speakers that the circle will be using for the performance series (the plan is to experiment with quadrophonic sound, with the circle playing in the round). Glenn arrives shortly after, and we take the necessary time to tune and warm up.

Victor puts forward the question of "What would we play, were we to have a 35 minute set ready, right now?" Several pieces are mentioned, including Chrysanthemum. Victor and Glenn take a bit of time to review this piece and relearn some parts that haven't been played for a while. Thrak also gets a nod: how would we play it as a trio? This leads to Brad learning a separate part and retouching a part he'd already been playing, with some group work on the piece.

From here, we take an extended moment to actually properly run a short set, which roughly consists of (no particular order):

Growing Circle
Intergalactic Boogie Express
Askesis
Improv
Derailed at the Junction
Thrak
Circulation
Chrysanthemum
Improv
Flying Home
Circulation
Where is the Nurse?

This lasts around 35 minutes, after which we take a break and talk about dude stuff.

Following the break, we spend some time going over the Sunken Cathedral arrangement. With only three people of a desired seven, it's a little thin, but the section that we end up working on (bars 22 through 63 or so) allows us to at least look at a few of the parts and make some decisions about timing and preference for pick vs. fingers. Following all this, it's acknowledged that the meeting is done, and we call it a night at around 10:15 p.m.

GCNE Meeting 11-28-10

Victor, Alex, Chris, Rick, Dev, Brad, Glenn

Everyone has arrived at the loft by about ten minutes after eight o' clock. For the earlier circlers, there is some preliminary Calliope-ing and circulation.

Since there is a working date and location for an upcoming performance project, it seems appropriate to the group to consider the undertaking as imminent and to set aside guitars for a serious discussion addressing specifics. An inquiry into the availability of the individual circlers reveals that there will be only one full rehearsal before the group enters the space in January.

The first thread of discussion addresses the basic question, "what will the task be?" What time of day, and for how long? How much time for preparation will be needed? Will rehearsals be closed or open? A dispute breaks out over the role of refreshments.

The second consideration is promotion, the effort made by the group to become known in the world-at-large. There are a plentitude of radio connections with this group, and it is felt that the best application of these opportunities is toward the middle of the project, around early March, to capitalize on the energy of an established process; propagation via various content-hosting websites is discussed as an obvious recourse - names are named; the kind review of a reputable critic is somewhat wistfully brought up as a valuable asset, and again something felt to be more opportune later in the project than earlier; and posters, in the right places.

In connection with promotion, the question of having a recording is brought to trial. There is a general consensus that having a recording would be useful for promotional purposes, but its role in relation to the performance experience (i.e. an affirmative response to the common after-show request for a recording) is less clear; several options are discussed, including memory sticks with select cuts and a special bonus track.

The final question is in regard to what name the group will call itself by; the proposal of this question is followed by a peculiar silence. V has a strong sense about the present name, and the suggestion is made to consider naming the performance series instead.

R departs at 9:45, as does the rest of the group not long after at around 10:10.

GCNE Meeting/Rehearsal 11-14-10

Chris, Victor, Brad, Dev

C arrives upstairs around 8:00, without guitar (at the luthier's for much needed renovation) to the sound of V and B rehearsing the lead section of Calliope: tonight, B has picked up the mirror for this part of the piece.

C is kindly offered the use of a guitar brought by V. This guitar has action worse than that in the shop, but possesses an other-worldly passive pick-up - an adjustment in the mix is needed to accommodate its bodacious presence. A mixer tutorial is improvised to assist C in this purpose.

The meeting formally begins, as many do, with silent acknowledgment. Following this, V asks C, "what were you doing?" to which C replies, "sitting still." This begins discussion and role playing that brings the inquiry to bear on all members of the group, which ties into the previous weeks' thread of having a sense of the impulse of the group's and our own individual work, rather than falling back on habit/convention/appealing to scriptural authority. For additional commentary on this matter, V proffers his favorite Zen anecdote and recommends the work of R.H. Blithe.

There will be guitar playing, however. B decides that it is best to have a larger group presence before continuing work with his arrangement of Debussy. V asks what the group would like to work on; D would like to improvise, with which B is comfortable, and C suggests Calliope. A thirty-minute improv with some intense moments ensues, and a break is called at approximately 9:08.

Back at 9:26

Calliope is given a hearing. There is some talk of the best way to phrase the bass part for the main section. The basses and leads are both given independent run-throughs, and the appraisal is similar: the phrasing of the notes, in terms of grouping (e.g. da, taka, taka dimi) is somewhat lacking. It is suggested that such work is not laborious, but merely requires a small period of extra attention.

The group tackles Batrachomyomachy. A click track is used to keep this piece steady, and much section work follows. A new lead configuration (V, B and D) works out the arrangement for the round in the "frog" section, and several attempts are made before this is played accurately. A question arises regarding the role of vibrato and the significance of just intonation.

The meeting ends, in silence, around 10:30.

GCNE Meeting/Rehearsal 11-7-10

Victor, Brad, Glenn, Chris, Dev

C arrives at the loft at 8:00, where V, B and G are already set up and sharing experiences of large fruit.

Before beginning, C offers feedback he received regarding the GCNE's Bean & Leaf performance two weeks prior. This leads to a lengthy discussion of the different perceptible stages of education and having one's own understanding of the work. Apropos to B's discovery of an ideal performance space, there is also talk of the group's vision for an upcoming performance project with points being brought up and addressed from last week. Some concerns include how to facilitate adequate rehearsal time on a weekly schedule, as well as the challenge of remaining creative in a continuous moment. D arrives during this talk, which lasts over an hour.

Guitar work for the evening focuses on B's new arrangement of a Debussy prelude. Initially, there is some confusion regarding timing, but as this is redressed the work of learning the notes proceeds smoothly. Several sections are given repetition as they are learned, and eventually the group is running through bar one to bar nineteen. Unlike most other pieces in the group's repertoire, this portion of this piece is played fingerstyle; some pointers are given to the inexperienced.

After 45 minutes of work, D excuses himself from the circle, and work continues for about fifteen more mimutes. The meeting concludes with a long silence at 10:20.

GCNE Meeting/Rehearsal 10-31-10

Chris, Brad, Rick, Dev, Glenn

Most of the team has arrived by 7:35, and the PA is set up for the meeting which begins around 8:00.

There is one circulation to check levels, and a second circulation which continues into pass-to-the-person-of-your-choice, as G arrives. There is a short improv which occurs before G is seated, which begins quietly then bubbles dynamically, and then tapers away.

The team of the evening is gathered and seated by 8:17, and the meeting begins with a discussion which encompasses the status on finding a weekly space; logistics related to this, including budget and location; talk of alternative performance projects, including monthly performances and house concerts; the value and options of recording a demo; the challenges of a weekly performance, and the idea of having an extended-length rehearsal once a month. This talk lasts for about fifty minutes.

A question is then put on the table: "Is there anything anyone would like to work on?"

B's new arrangement is brought up as an option, but not everyone is prepared. It is decided that next week the group will aim to be familiar with the first nineteen bars, or approximately first page, of the piece. C announces that he has a new arrangement of his own, to be looked at in the near future.

C suggests Intergalactic Boogie Express as a piece which needs detail work. Per request, a slower play-through than has been normal recently. Following this, there is some section work and a faster reading. Much talk of pulse and the precarious split between the bass and leads, as well as feeling the triplets. B offers to count in a third take, which shows signs of improvement.

Next, D suggests Calliope, which is taken around performance tempo (88 BPM). Speeding up is noted, particularly in the "cowboy" section. Valuable dissection ensues, with some correcting of notes being played, to looping the main bass part with an ear toward playing the last note of each phrase more staccato. G offers advice to look at the phrase as it falls on a grid, seeing where notes are rhythmically on specific parts of the count.

G suggests Eye of the Needle, based on last Saturday's performance. There is one play-through which is felt to be "nice" by the players. C is given a note on the dynamic trajectory of the burbles, which can come out as a third voice as the harmony unfolds in the second F# section.

A break is called at 10:05, and lasts for about ten minutes.

The final piece to be looked at is Where's the Nurse, via R. Before launching into this, the finale is given a test run by the two lead players, and a needed adjustment in the mix is made. D confesses to his feeling duress under the gaze of B during this section, who for many months longed for D's part; a switch is made. Two play-throughs, with commentary on the dynamics of the melody section.

The meeting ends in silence at 10:38.

GCNE Meeting, 10/17/10 - The Loft

At 7:43 the CT contingent, Rick M., Brad and Victor are at the loft setting up. The meeting opens with a discussion of logistics regarding Saturday's upcoming performance at Bean & Leaf in New London, including transportation, load-in/arrival times and detailed talk of back line and available equipment.

Rehearsal begins with a play-through of Eye of the Needle. V makes a performance note pertaining to ringing strings and harmonics at the end of this and other pieces; Growing Circle is also given a hearing.

Following these two pieces, V switches gears to a warm-up using the legato-staccato exercise the group has been focusing on for the past few weeks. The first portion of this work involves playing in the first position on the neck and switching the finger playing a legato note (while the others remain staccato) on call, beginning with the first finger and moving successively to the fourth. For the second portion the same fingering pattern is moved up the neck to the 12th fret, with the legato finger changing in the same succession with each change in position, and back.

The group returns to repertoire with Third Relation. V prefaces this with a note on the function of the first bar of a phrase establishing its order. Next, Askesis is given a run. This is followed by some section work focusing on the clarity of (in this case) the first transition, at incrementally faster tempos. A similar approach is taken with the next piece, Calliope, with some words on the art of tempo/rhythm change in a set.

Where's the Nurse is the final piece to be looked at before a break, and performance notes from all corners are offered, including discussion of the character of the arpeggios and the place of a crescendo in the bass transitioning to the finale.

Break at 9:13. There is discussion of business card layout and function, as well as the obligatory CP stand-up yarn.

The "luau team" returns to active service for a play-through of Blockhead, with V adopting the role of listener/click track. A few false takes, but an 8th note count-in does the trick. V suggests hearing the 16th note pulse throughout the piece and especially during the final chordal section, and takes up drum sticks to assist.

Glenn arrives at 9:46.

With a now expanded ensemble, a number of pieces are given hearing. First is Opening, which is given two or three complete play-throughs. Next, Where's the Nurse and Calliope both make second appearances. G, C and V play Love is Green, which while expressive has "glitches"; advice is offered to C to let the melody notes sustain and perhaps to start singing his part, to become familiar with it as a melody.

The Prelude is played, with many brown/jazz notes, but with improving flow.

Finally, the group runs through Morning Has Broken, with a suggestion for the possible addition of a low part for some of the verses. Jocularity ensues, and a final improv concludes the lengthy meeting at 11:10.

GCNE Meeting, 10-08-2010, The Loft

In attendance: full company, with Victor McSurely, Chris Paquette, Glenn Hughes, Dev Ray, Rick McCarthy, Brad Hogg, Alex Lahoski.

Rick, Brad, the Connecticut contingent, and Victor all arrive at the loft at roughly 7:30, and begin to warm up in the circle at about 7:45 with some circulation. Shortly after we begin, the doorbell rings once, letting Glenn up the stairs. Dev follows shortly after, and both join in as they are able.

After 45 minutes of circulation and improvisation, Victor calls Where is the Nurse?, Growing Circle, and Intergalactic Boogie Express, to check in with these pieces. Afterward, he puts forwards some comments about working with rising energies in an improvisation or otherwise, and then suggests work on Opening. Since the basses need to visit their own circulation (now at 3 people), the leads choose to go out to the hall and work on Love is Green. Dev, having no current part on this piece, opts to work on Batrachomyomachy in the next room over.

Roughly 15 minutes later, the leads come back into the loft, with Dev in tow. They run through Love is Green, and then the Opening team opens an inquiry into Opening. The first section is up to snuff, so we run this section a few times. After this, Alex and Brad take to the hall to work on the second section. While they are out there, the rest of the team tackles Calliope, focusing on the bass part (since the leads got such a workout the week before). On Alex and Brad's return, the team runs the 1st and 2nd sections of opening as a dual 3-person circulation, with some degree of success.

Following this, Brad begins to present an arrangement he's been working on for the circle--this is postponed, as it seems to be more appropriate to send out the files to the circle when it's completely finished. With this, there is some discussion regarding the gig that is coming up in two weeks, and we close the night at around 11 p.m. From here on out, Chris Paquette will be assuming minutes duties for each week's meeting.

GCNE Meeting, 10-03-2010, The Loft

In attendance: Victor McSurely, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes.

As Glenn arrives at around 7:45 or so, Victor, Chris, and Brad are beginning to play through Calliope. We play through it once, and Glenn is able to join in for the last bit of it. Another run through (at about 74 bpm), and we move on to working with the staccato-legato exercise. An initial run through the fingering at a higher speed prompts us to back it down to 69 bpm, running at 16ths through the patterns (1st finger legato, then 2nd finger, etc.). We also find that certain patterns want to be rushed more, with respect to where the legato note falls within the beat--something that welcomes a personal practice approach.

Moving on from this, we jump into actual section work with Calliope. There is only one bass player tonight (Chris), but he is doing a pretty heroic job of keeping up with three lead players. With respect to the leads, the dynamics and accenting of the high melody are what seem to jump out as most necessary to work on--Victor does mention that this used to be accent picked, and that it might be useful to reapproach this piece as such. Most of the work with this is running at 78 bpm or so, but we'll need to bring it up to around 84-88.

Here, there be breaks to be had.

Back in the circle, more circulation work. Victor has us work with arpeggiating a Cmaj chord, and then presents an exercise: starting from Glenn and moving to Victor, each person will be the "one" for four beats, as we circulate in turn (changing our note as necessary). This turns out to be a little trickier than we anticipated, so we fall back to clapping in time. Eventually, we move to running notes, in order to get the feel of each position, and running the exercise as originally intended. It's actually very interesting to hear when we "get" the exercise and start playing musicially, as well as hearing the difference between permutation as the one gets shifted around the circle.

This work takes us up to 10 p.m., when we close the meeting. Next week, we'll likely be working with Opening again (with a 3-person circulation in the bass).

GCNE Meeting, 09-26-2010

In attendance: a full house with Victor McSurely, Dev Ray, Rick McCarthy, Alex Lahoski, Chris Paquette, Glenn Hughes, and Brad Hogg.

All in the circle at around 7:50 or so, with a circulation to set levels. This ended up going a little longer than "just setting levels", with a clear ending. With no specific agenda to address, Victor suggests simply running some repertoire, unless someone has a different request. With the only requests being repertoire, we jump right in. (Not the exact order.)

Growing Circle
Eye of the Needle
Third Relation
Where is the Nurse?
Bicycling to Afghanistan
Calliope
Prelude Circulation
Flying Home
Intergalactic Boogie Express
Blockhead (from the luau team)

Tweaking and reviewing parts as needed (some of these haven't been played for a while), with Afghanistan being revisited (it is beginning to move from a trio to an ensemble again) and Calliope getting some work after a couple of false starts. Blockhead gets some refining work on the polyrhythm section as well. Chris has managed to gain a new nickname: "Natch". A last call for repertoire requests, and a necessary break.

During the break, various discussions ensue, including further work on possible spaces for the weekly challenge. Also, differing practice regimens are presented, with a fair dollop of jocularity.

Back in the circle, Morning Has Broken is called, prompting a clarification of certain parts. Next, we run Opening, and decide to move again towards a three-person circulation in the bass, aiming for next week.

Next up, Victor runs through the English bell-ringing changes again, introducing the pattern to Dev and Glenn, and reintroducing it to the rest of the team. This moves into circulating with return and circulation +1. This begins with notes and moves to clapping for some time, before finishing with guitars. This signifies the end of the night at 10:30, with a bit of post-rehearsal gear talk.

09-19-2010, GCNE Meeting, The Loft

In attendance: Victor McSurely, Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, Alex Lahoski, Dev Ray.

After a brief sound check at 7:45, we begin the meeting proper with a moment of silence, followed by a direction of attention to breath. This attention is maintained as we move to a three-note circulation exercise, and further maintained as we work with the staccato-legato exercise we were given earlier in the week:

-1---------------------------------------
---2----1--------------------------------
-----3----2-----1------------------------
-------4----3-----2-----1-------------4--
--------------4-----3-----2---4-1---3----
----------------------4-----3-----2------

-----------------------4-----3-----2-----
---------------4-----3-----2---4-1---3---
-------4-----3-----2-----1-------------4-
-----3-----2-----1-----------------------
---2-----1-------------------------------
-1---------------------------------------

Following this finger pattern, one would play this with all notes staccato, and then with each successive finger legato:

1234
1234
1234
1234
After working with this for a bit, and moving to 3 and 4 as successfully legato, Victor calls Askesis. Once through. He then calls for Blockhead, which the luau team dutifully runs. Some persnickitiness in the polyrhythms prompts some clapping work with this section, with one last run sounding better than before. Before a break, Chris requests a rundown of Intergalactic Boogie Express.

During the break, with guitars off, we learn about Elan S.'s decision to take on a weekly performance challenge, and are asked to help in any way we might be able to, with respect to footwork and organization. Extending from this, the discussion of our own weekly challenge arises, and what may be done to facilitate that. Eventually, a rough game plan is established, and we are all in.

Back in the circle, we jump in with some circulation work. With a Cmaj arpeggio, we work with circulating with return (with 7 players, it'd be 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-6-5-4-3-2), with a definite pulse. There's an attempt to play this with ascending diatonic triads (Dmin would be next), but this gives way to circulating numbers in a six beat pulse (1-2-3-4-5-6-1-2-3-4-5-6). Once we have this established, we begin moving the pattern backwards. So, from here (italicized numbers are the place in the circle, and non-italicized is the count):

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-6-5-4-3-2
1-2-3-4-5-6-1-2-3-4-5-6

we move to:

7-1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-11-2-3-4-5-6-1-2-3-4-5-6

and then:

6-7-1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1-61-2-3-4-5-6-1-2-3-4-5-6

And so on. Once we have a definite pulse, we then move back to guitars and leave the pattern, simply working with circulation-with-return. After this, Victor calls the Prelude Circulation. Some frogginess, and we abandon the end, working directly with the pulse and counting of the circulation (5+3). This having been established, we play the Prelude once more, with a much better ending. A very musical free circulation, and we end the meeting at roughly 10:30 p.m.

GCNE Performance at All Asia Bar, 08-31-2010

Circulation/Tuning the Space
Growing Circle
Askesis

Where is the Nurse?
Flying Home
Morning Has Broken

Eye of the Needle
Blockhead
Asturias

In attendance: Alex Lahoski, Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, and Glenn Hughes.

Scheduled for a 9:15 downbeat, but more of a 9:25 start, with finishing at easily 10 minutes to the hour. Numerous technical difficulties for this gig led to an abbreviated setlist. The set seemed to be well-received, regardless, and we had a very enthusiastic and happy audient thank us afterward.

GCNE Meeting, 08-29-2010, The Loft

Generally anecodotal in nature, as no notes were taken during the meeting tonight, and a lot of material was covered.

In attendance: Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, Alex Lahoski, Victor McSurely.

All except Victor arriving at the space within about 10 minutes or so of each other, we head up to the top floor at about 7:35 and set the space. In the circle at roughly 7:50 pm, and beginning with some circulation, moving towards faster speeds. Moving to running the setlist for the gig on Tuesday (a last-minute booking), we start work with Growing Circle, twice (once for attention to dynamics). Askesis next; as we are running this, Victor walks into the space. We eventually find ourselves working for some time with a click track on the middle parts of the piece, following direction from Victor.

From here, we end up running other parts of the setlist, including Blockhead, Where is the Nurse, and Morning Has Broken, with a real eye towards having these pieces ready for the gig. During a break, strawberry and pumpkin oat bars are consumed. Eye of the Needle and Asturias close out the night.

GCNE Meeting, 08-22-2010, Victor's House/Studio

In attendance: Victor McSurely, Rick McCarthy, Alex Lahoski, Brad Hogg, Chris Paquette.

All arrive at Victor's place at the same time, shortly after 8 pm. Taking a few minutes to organize, we circle up as Victor tends to domestic matters, and warm up with some very basic 2nd primary work. Eventually, Victor comes down to the studio, and we begin the meeting with a long moment of silence, followed by a free circulation.

After this, Victor presents the night's work, which is circulation patterns using English change ringing patterns. The concept is as follows: the pattern begins with one single pass around the circle. Each person has their note, and it does not change. (For our work, we're utilizing a descending Cmaj pentatonic scale.) Once it has circulated once, the pattern starts over again, but skips the first person and moves directly to the second. It then moves to the first, and then to the third, and continues to the end of the circle. For the next pass, the first person is again skipped, moving directly to the second. This time, however, the second passes to the third, who passes to the first. The first then passes to the fourth, and continuing normally around the circle. The pattern continues to do this through the rest of the circle. So, in a five-person circulation,

1 2 3 4 5
2 1 3 4 5
2 3 1 4 5
2 3 4 1 5
2 3 4 5 1

At this point, the pattern shifts one person. The last circulation could be seen as the first circulation in position 2, and fittingly, the pattern lays out as such:

2 3 4 5 1
3 2 4 5 1
3 4 2 5 1
3 4 5 2 1
3 4 5 1 2

The pattern then progresses through the rest of the circle , and ties seamlessly into the beginning again.

This takes a few times to really sort out, as we are learning the pattern as we play it. After about 25 minutes of playing, we make it through the full pattern one and a half times. The next couple of attempts don't make it around the full circle, prompting Victor into a discussion with regards to our work with the tetrad last week.

Following this, we take another few stabs at the pattern, and eventually succeed with two passes, occasionally shifting the pole positions. We eventually end the night with a solid pass through three full cycles (ending in the middle of the fourth). A moment of silence to mark the end of the meeting proper at about 10:10, followed by gig scheduling talk afterwards.

GCNE Meeting, 08-15-2010, The Loft

In attendance: Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Alex Lahoski, Victor McSurely.

All except Victor arriving around 7:30 or so, and up to the loft. We begin to prepare the PA for rehearsal, but Alex suggests that we remain unplugged for the initial part of the meeting--this ends up being the case for the entire night.

The meeting begins with a circulation. After the last note fades out, Alex mentions that our circulation abilities have been on his mind this week; though this happened to be a good one, this is not the general rule, and so one of his intents for the night is to work on this tonight. First, though, he calls Blockhead--as we are running this down, Victor walks into the space. Taking a seat, he waits until we finish, and then asks us to run the set from the luau.

Interestingly, the set seems to go a bit better tonight than at the luau. Afterwards, this seems to be the consensus among the players, when prompted by Victor. Guitars come off for a bit, as we recapitulate. Alex notes that, for him, the biggest group issue seemed to be circulating in time. Brad and Rick both commented on needing to "be the guy" (Rick's words) to be able to play the part, especially in a smaller group. Chris's point of view, shared by the rest, was that it had been a "satisfying and honourable performance", with "a supportive audience that was also distracting". Some additional discussion, and Victor notes that there are some things he'd like to work on with regards to our comments.

Guitars back on, and Victor chooses to try out some things in circulation. A lot of working with attention to breath.

After this, guitars back off, and an in-depth discussion of the pentad, as well as how the tetrad, and how they relate to each other and to the circle.

To finish the night, Victor puts on the recording of the Improv ORG performance, to give us a chance to hear the work that was done that night. At 10:20 pm, a moment to acknowledge the end of the meeting, and we take our leave for the night.

GCNE Meeting, 08-08-2010, The Loft

In attendance: Brad Hogg, Chris Paquette, and Alex Lahoski.

Beginning the meeting at about 8 pm, we start with some circulation to check levels. With no key announced, this moves gently from Cmaj to A Hijaz (a Phrygian scale with a major 3rd and major 7th). We then warm up with some basic 2nd Primary work--first the initial exercise, and then moving to displacement of different harmony notes, working with this for about 10 minutes or so. Chris then offers a counting exercise in 6/4, derived from the bassline of a song by Gentle Giant.

This eventually prompts Alex to move to working with the polyrhythms in Blockhead, and counting while playing them. We first mainly work with the "Paul" part (which is the quarter-note-pulse-with-a-bump part), then move to Bert's 3-against-4-in-15 part, and finally to Hideyo's 5/8 part. After working with all of these for a bit, we then begin looking at the other parts of the song, and each learning all the parts. At 9:25, we take a break, just in time for Brad to take a call from Dev.

Back in the circle, a few minutes later, Alex brings us back to the fifth mode of D Harmonic Minor, teaching a figure that is played almost entirely on the 3rd string. This turns out to be parts of the CG composition "Trapiche". Work on this takes us up to 10 p.m., and a moment of silence to acknowledge the end of the meeting.

GCNE Performance, 08-07-2010, "The Luau" in Rhode Island

Circulation/Tuning the Space
Growing Circle
Askesis
Introduction

Circulation (A Hijaz)
Where is the Nurse?
THRAK
Morning Has Broken

Circulation/Improv
Eye of the Needle
Blockhead
Asturias

In attendance: Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Alex Lahoski.

The performance begins for the circle at 4 pm with some attention exercises, as we all start our traveling towards the location: Martin Bradburn's house in Rhode Island. All arriving at about 6:30 or 6:45 pm, we begin warming up as a group at 7 pm.

Scheduled to take the stage at 7:50 pm for setup, and 8:00 pm to play. The previous band ended up running a little long, so our performance ended up starting at 8:12 pm. After we finish, we leave the stage, take a moment to acknowledge the end of the performance, and then tear down.

Following the performance, we opt to hang out and socialize for a while--beautiful weather, and a lovely location next to the lake. Eventually, the night is called at 11 pm, and we all head home.

GCNE Meeting, 08-01-2010, The Loft

In attendance: Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Alex Lahoski (the "luau team").

We begin the meeting at a quarter of 8pm. A moment of acknowledgment, and then improvisation initiated by Alex. A bit of organizational discussion, with regards to the upcoming luau gig on the 7th, and we jump into working the set (not quite a list yet, as there is no defined order as of this writing).

First up is Intergalactic Boogie Express. A false start, and then a full go at it. With only one bass player, though, we quickly decide to leave it for this gig. 3rd Relation next--this settles in once we actually get into the piece. We spend a little time touching up the final descending run, to give Alex a chance to get used to playing the Dancing D's part, and make a note to revisit the piece before the end of the night.

Growing Circle, next. Once through, with comments from Alex to remember to play the dynamics. A comment from Brad, regarding the playing of this at the Midway gig--Alex has us run it again, with both comments in mind. With this small of a circle, it helps to enter more strongly than we might with more players.

Moving on to Blockhead. This gets two runs, with a quieter entry into the polyrhythm section, the second time. This is a fun piece to play, and a good addition to our repertoire. Where's the Nurse is up next, and gets a good ten minutes of spot work. The Turkish spirit in mind, we continue with Askesis, and give some extra attention to the middle tricky bits, as per request. Flying Home gets some time spent with it, as we are missing an ornamental part for the end--this is also run twice. A break at 9:15 or so.

Back in the circle at 9:25 with Morning Has Broken, with parts as follows: Rick and Alex on melody lead (Rick takes the tremolo picking in the last verse), Chris on chordal accompaniment, and Brad on the Glenn Special. Everyone having addressed their parts, this will be a good addition to the set list for Saturday (and also its premier performance). A bit of a digression, here, as Brad takes a moment to ask about logistics for arrival--this leads to a couple of further digressions, including a recipe from Rick (given below in the comments!).

Eye of the Needle next, with the notes from last week in mind. Chris makes a point of reminding everyone about keeping with the tempo as counted out. A couple of runs with this, and then once more through 3rd Relation, with attention to open strings. A circulation to close the night, starting in C Major and moving to areas more ambiguous. With a moment of silence, we close at about 10:25 or so.

GCNE Meeting, 07-18-2010, The Loft

In attendance: Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, Alex Lahoski, and Dev Ray.

Glenn, Brad, and Rick arrive first and head up to the loft. As we're setting up the room, Chris calls Brad to let them in, as the door buzzer and bell are apparently not working.

Starting at 8 pm with some circulation to set levels. Dev hasn't arrived yet, due to a bit of day-job-related preparation, so Alex asks to review the ornamental parts for Morning Has Broken. Glenn agrees to this, and we spend roughly the next 25 minutes or so relearning the parts and rehearsing the piece. For the August 7th luau gig, it looks like the ornamentation will go to either Alex or Brad (to be decided next week). At this point, we take a bit of a break, as we prepare to dive into other luau matters; Glenn chooses to bow out, due to impending work of his own.

Dev arrives a few minutes later, and Brad heads back down to let him in. We make it back to the top to the sound of Blockhead. Alex is presenting this piece specifically for the luau team, and so we dive into it for roughly 45 minutes. At the end, we're able to run it all the way through, and have it definitely on call for the gig.

Flying Home is called next, to see how this will play out in this line-up. The leads have a high lead part that is usually played by Glenn; this might be left out for this particular gig. A few more pieces of repertoire are mentioned, and Brad requests to hear Eye of the Needle with Dev laying out. After running the piece and working in some suggestions from Dev, there's a bit more discussion of the logistics of when we play, where we meet, and other practicalities, and then we call it a night at around 10:25 p.m.

GCNE Performance, the Cloud Club, 07-10-2010 - Improv ORG

Full circle in attendance: Dev Ray, Alex Lahoski, Glenn Hughes, Chris Paquette, Rick McCarthy, Brad Hogg, Victor McSurely.

The circle arrives in bits and pieces over the course of an hour, at Northampton Street in Boston, around 9-10 pm. A friend of Victor's has asked us to play a set at Improv ORG, a private party held at the Cloud Club in Boston. Those in the know will recognize this place as one of the mainstays in the Boston counterculture movement (our host, Mali Sastri, plays in/is Jaggery, one of the better bands in Boston). A bit of warming up in the green room on the second floor (the entire house is like one big surrealist painting), and then we find that we're about to go on. So, up the stairs with stools, guitars, and cables.

10:35 or so, we're on. The performance space is on the top floor, and is very tight. We take our space, circle up and plug in (battery amplifiers for this one). Once the incidental music comes down, a moment of silence for us, and then we're in.

35 minutes later, we finish a set that is at times wonderful and other times quite intense, and have a moment of silence in the room before enthusiastic applause from the crowd. Back down the stairs to the green room, where we complete the task for the night. Once our things are put away, Victor discusses more of the Systematics pentad as it applies to us, within the context of the circle. Then, some talk* about what our upcoming work is: upcoming gigs, gigs that have yet to be acquired, musical tasks, etc. Finally, we agree that we should take Sunday off--having two performances in a week, followed by some more work with the pentad, seems to constitute a full week's work. Most of us are gone by 11:45 or so, and a couple stay behind. A good week, and a great night.

*This talk is punctuated by consistent floor pounding from the performance space above us: Amanda Palmer, Mali Sastri, and the rest of Jaggery are playing MIA's "Paper Planes" directly above our heads.

GCNE Performance, at the Midway Cafe, 07-07-2010

Full circle in attendance: Victor McSurely, Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, Alex Lahoski, Dev Ray.

The night begins with a warm-up at Brad's place, which is conveniently located three blocks from the venue. Victor, Chris, Rick and Brad spend roughly an hour playing and running repertoire, in order to get the hands working correctly. After this, a walk (and drive) down the street, for load in at 7 pm. Sound check at roughly a quarter of 8, to make sure that everything works, and a little more repertoire with the full group. Once we're finished with this, Victor and Randy Wooten set up for their opening slot (an ambient/looping project with Randy on drums), amidst a small amount of heckling from some of the bar regulars ("Aw, man, where's the eighth guitah playah? The sign says eight! Hey, you should do some covahs, you know, like 'In the Jungle', and have one guy doin' chords, and annuddah doin' the lead, you know, like 'ah-wheeee'. I'm just sayin'. . .")

Victor and Randy begin their set a bit before 9 pm. Great music, and the first time that they've played out in this format. Once they've finished their set, we strike the stage and reset for the circle. There's a bit of consternation between the house sound man and the circle, with regards to how the house mixer should be set, but it seems to be resolved simply, within a few minutes.

A bit of circulation, and then addressing a technical issue. And, at about 9:45, we're off!

No set list--this seems to be a good way for us to work, and really lets us gauge the momentum of the show. Opening with Flying Home, and closing with Asturias, with a fair amount of improvisation and repertoire in between. Intergalactic Boogie Express gets called in the middle of the set; we haven't played this in rehearsal in about 4 months, so some tricky spots are a little trickier, but it is surprisingly well played. Thrak is LOUD, the way that it should be

Once we finish the set at about 11 pm, we unplug, leave the stage and circle up. As we do so, the house sound man immediately turns up the house music to a slightly uncomfortable level, which is a little distressing, but we're able to finish and complete, regardless. The show is well-received, and everyone that is there (granted, not many, but it is a Wednesday night) is vocally impressed and pleased.

We fully strike the stage, enjoy a beer or two, and call it a night. Over all, a good performance.

GCNE Meeting, 06-27-2010, The Loft

In attendance: Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, Alex Lahoski.

A bit of a late start, tonight. In the circle at 8 p.m., we open with an improv that slowly establishes itself in A minor--very good. There's a different, more mature feel to this than some of what we've been playing, recently.

Fittingly, to start in with repertoire, we begin with 3rd Relation. Some brown notes on the last descending line, and some lumpiness in the bass, so a bit of spot section work to address this. Where's the Nurse, next--disregarding some bass issues, it's not bad. This seems to be a piece that is easier to play with a larger group, though that can also mean more timing inconsistencies. Some spot work on this as well.

Askesis, next.

Growing Circle, with three leads and one bass. There's a bit of a dynamics issue that was brought up last week, so we play through twice, to catch it the second time around. Next up is Flying Home; the only really pertinent difficulty is maintaining the tempo throughout. The bass part is quite repetitive, and it can be really easy to rush the piece and mistake rushing for playing with intensity.

Morning Has Broken comes up next. In this small group (which will extend into the full group), it sounds really quite good, and with a bit more personal practice, will be solid for the gig on the 7th. With this, we take a break at about 9:15.

Ten minutes later, we're back in the circle, and we review the Chrysanthemum exercise, both to revisit it and to teach it to Alex. 20 minutes later, it's under the fingers, and ready for personal practice. We close with an improvisation that is even better than the opening--more avant garde, eventually landing on a D tonal center. Lotsa fun, and a good indicator of where the circle is at. The meeting closes with a moment of silence at 10 p.m.

Some discussion, afterwards, of the pentad.

GCNE Meeting, 06-20-2010, The Loft

In attendance: Victor McSurely, Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, Alex Lahoski, Dev Ray (late due to a cross-ocean familial ambush!).

No notes taken during the meeting, so this will be mostly anecdotal. Quite hot, and just starting to get a little dim at about a quarter to 8 when we started. Started out with a warm-up presented by Glenn as a way of working through the modes by using a descending tritone pattern, and the relation of the tritone to its place in each mode. Interesting way to look at them, and a useful way to hear the place of tension in each mode. Moved on to identifying modes by ear, as they are played, and responding in the correct mode.

Continuing on, we reapproached some repertoire that we haven't worked for a while. Askesis, Third Relation, Growing Circle (at this point, we turned the lights on, which helped), Opening (this may not approach the three-seat bass circulation in time for the gig, but we're still hoping), the Prelude Circulation, and Batrachomyomachy. Some counting issues still, but nothing that some personal practice won't fix. With this, a break.

Back in the circle, we take on the last parts of MHB, which include all the harmony and ornamentation parts. Though the tradition has been for everyone to know all parts, and trade off throughout the piece, we're choosing to stick with assigned parts for the sake of the gig coming up. A couple of runthroughs, and a long moment of silence.

With this, Victor presents the pentad of the guitar circle (as it applies to our work). Things to consider. Meeting closes at about 11 p.m. or so.

GCNE Meeting, 06-13-2010, The Loft

In attendance: Victor McSurely, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, Dev Ray.

The meeting begins at roughly 7:35 with a clear moment of silence. "When ready, begin."

Following this, we jump into working with CMaj, as well as the rest of the church modes, focusing on C as a tonal center. The approach is "bright to dark", echoing a very good presentation from Steve Jolemore:

Lydian (Major scale, augmented 4th)
Ionian (Standard Major, perfect 4th)
Mixolydian (Major Scale, minor 7th)
Dorian (Minor Scale, natural 6th)
Aeolian (Natural Minor Scale, minor 6th)
Phrygian (Minor Scale, minor 2nd)
Locrian (Minor Scale, minor 2nd, flatted 5th)

The focus is a bit more on ear training, tonight. After short improvisations in each mode (knowing what they are beforehand), Victor's next exercise is to have the circle improvise and respond in the mode that he lays out, without telling us what he will play. Interesting work, and interesting comments, especially with regards to "What key are we actually playing in?". This leads quite organically into "real life", or having to discern tonal center and modality by ear. After a bit, Victor leaves it and has Glenn choose a few keys. Glenn notes that it strikes him how important it is to know exactly what he's going to play before he plays it, in order to give the correct tonal bed.

With this, we take a slightly extended break. Victor plays a couple of recordings of the Beatles concert that he put on with his students at the Montessori school. Wonderful music. A quote from one of the parents really stuck with the scribe, as well: "Instead of performing for us, they were showing us themselves."

Also, during the break, we start hammering out details of the gig, such as who is opening, what rehearsals we have available to us, and what the setlist may involve. Currently, repertoire includes most of the major themes (EotN, Askesis, 3rdRel, Asturias, Growing Circle, Flying Home, Thrak), along with Batracho, Where's the Nurse, and the Bach Prelude. Morning Has Broken and Opening as well, possibly. Certain pieces are in the bag, but there are definitely those that need to be touched up and revisited. The problem is scheduling rehearsals where everyone is present. Additionally, we are considering a busking night in Canton, but this is still a little up in the air. We eventually decide that it will be easier to work out scheduling through e-mail (since two people weren't able to make it in, tonight).

Back in the circle for some more work. Glenn touches on the Chrysanthemum exercise, again, adding the additional challenge of tapping out the quarter note beat and saying the bass note of each triad as they come. A little tough, but very helpful. After working this for a bit, he then clarifies the melody part in MHB (specifically, the rhythmic variations from verse to verse).

Batracho is next. Glenn, Dev, and Victor on lead, with Chris and Brad on bass. A bit hairy, with Brad playing bass for the first time, and Dev in a different slot than what he has played, but it should work itself out--most problems are related to personal practice more than anything. Where's the Nurse after this. Not a bad runthrough of this, considering we haven't rehearsed it in some time.

Another very clear moment of silence at 11 p.m. to end the night.

GCNE Meeting, 06-06-2010, The Loft

In attendance: Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, and Dev Ray.

Getting started a little earlier than the week before, we begin with a bit of a pause before jumping straight in with the opening 16 chords of Chrysanthemum, presented by Glenn. Work on this is pretty direct: the sequence is long*, and there's a couple of jumps thrown in that are not difficult, but are hard to remember where they are. The most difficult part of this, for the scribe, is reconciling the root movement and the suggested fingering of the notes. Work on this takes us straight up to 9 p.m., and a break ensues.

After some small talk, we reconvene, and discuss the upcoming gig on July 7th: who will open, what we might do. After this, we make some very clear headway with MHB, having both the chordal structure and the primary melody down. A circulation and improv to close the night, and we finish at about 10:15 or so.

*The sequence of the root movement will be in a comment on this post.

05-30-2010, GCNE Meeting, The Loft

In attendance: Rick McCarthy, Alex Lahoski, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg.

Not too many people for this one, so we choose to play in the round, unplugged.

Meeting starts at 8:18 p.m. with a clear moment of silence. As a warm up, Alex presents a circulation exercise given to him by CG: each person is given a time signature (5, 7, 9, or 11), as well as two notes from CMaj (from Bdim and CMaj7). With a low C as a drone, we then circulate around, each playing on the last and first beats of our measure, with the aim to track the beats lining up as they go around the circle. After a bit with 5 through 11, we back down to 3, 4, 5, and 7, and then drop the drone. Then we shift the pattern one seat, retaining our assigned notes.

After working with this for a bit, we move on to diatonic triads in CMaj, singing and playing the notes. We then work on circulating these. Break at 9:25.

"Hi, this is Toady Gerbil, and I'm here to talk to you about Batracho Bits!" One had to be there.

Before beginning work on Opening, Brad asks Chris if he had any observations about playing the piece on Newbury Street, the previous week. Chris replies that what struck him most was that, when we'd go offrail during a section, we'd "find ourselves" at the beginning of the next section, and be together for most of that, before having it go sideways again. Tough job, this.

We work for the next 45 minutes or so on pulling the beginning section together and getting the order right (Seat 1: Brad, Seat 2: Rick, Seat 3: Alex, playing the duple-time bass part as a 3-person circulation). We then have Chris come in, playing the lead part to provide the triplet overlay. Some words about timbre and correct positioning on the neck. Another very clear silence at 10:30, to close out the night.

05-23-2010, GCNE Busks on Newbury Street

In attendance: Glenn Hughes, Brad Hogg, Chris Paquette, Rick McCarthy, and Victor McSurely.

In response to the weather (and suggestions from Victor), the circle chooses to forgo "life-changing work on C Major and the 7 modes" and play outside. After first rendezvousing at the loft, we all load into Rick's vehicle and drive over with amps and stools, arriving around 8:15. Finding a spot in front of the Boston Architectural College, we set up, warm up, and start playing around 8:30.

As before, there is no setlist, but circulation and improvisation play a big part in the presentation. Repertoire includes some of the usual suspects (not in order): Eye of the Needle, Askesis, Growing Circle, Third Relation, Calliope, Batrachomyomachy, and the Prelude Circulation. We also play Opening and Where's the Nurse 3 times each, at varying points. Opening is tough--we haven't played this for a few months, as a group.

Finally completing around 10 p.m., we call it a night and count up the offerings: there's enough for ice cream, as well as a little left over for the band kitty. At JP Lick's, Chris unsuccessfully tries to convince us that he's unentertaining, and we all end up on camera at one point or another. A good close to the night, with a few more people in town becoming aware of the group.

Back to the loft, and a final shifting of materials. We all head home for the night, around 10:45 or so.

GCNE Meeting, 05-16-2010, The Loft

In attendance: Victor McSurely, Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, and Glenn Hughes.

Starting the meeting with a quiet bang, Chris mentions that he'd like to work a bit with an approach to Opening that he's developed. The motion passes, and we slot it in for a little later in the meeting. Both Glenn and Victor note that we need to begin revisiting CMaj and the 3rd and 5th primaries, and the agenda of the meeting is born. It is still light outside, so we don't bother with the room lights.

Tuning, and then an improvisation.

After this, we begin working directly with the 3rd primary, first playing and naming the notes, and then singing and playing the scale. This is played both ascending and descending, the latter of which provides some interesting jumps to sing. At this point, it's getting just a little too dark, so Victor turns on a light, which seems to have a noticeable effect on the team. We then work with the exercise of playing the scale at the 5th fret C on the low G, adusting fingering as necessary.

Following this, Chris presents an exercise he's developed for approaching the triplet circulation in Opening, which seems to be related to a circulation exercise that Claudio Lafalce presented in Sassoferrato, in March. Partway through this, Rick has to take leave, in order to play "Dad". After about 30 minutes or so of working with this exercise (and Opening in general), we elect to take a break. Some mild conversation, with a bit of discussion of gigs. A few minutes in, Rick returns, having been relieved of his parently duties before he made it home.

Back in the circle, we return to CMaj. Starting off with a circulation of CMaj, 3 octaves, low C to fifth fret 1st string (which only takes a couple of tries), we work with a simple 3-note ascending pattern (c-d-e-d-e-f-e-f-g etc.). Conceptually, this is not difficult, but holding the pattern is a little challenging, and it takes a number of attempts to get it right. Brad brings up the story of Curt Golden crystallizing CMaj on the guitar by being on the sidelines during a Guitar Craft course circulation that took roughly 3 hours and mentally playing every note with the circle (though he had no guitar in hand). After a few more minutes, we make it up and down again, and then make a go at diatonic triads, which is successful in a more timely fashion.

A little bit of talking, and a moment of silence to finish the night at roughly 10:20 p.m.

GCNE Meeting/Performance, 05-02-2010, The banks of the Charles River

In attendance: Victor McSurely, Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, Alex Lahoski, Dev Ray, and Tim Butler (who is visiting from New York).

The weather is beautiful, today, so the circle has chosen to take advantage of this and unleash ourselves on the unsuspecting public along the Charles River. Brad is about twenty minutes late, unfortunately, but once he shows up, we're off! Victor mentions that we will be working with an awareness of the motion of breath, as we move through the day.

Roughly twenty-five minutes later, we park in a garage in Harvard Square (courtesy of Glenn's day job), and embark to the river. Once we arrive with thrones, amps, guitars, and ourselves, we find a spot close to a bridge (the John Weeks Bridge, apparently) and circle up. At roughly a quarter of five, we begin with a bit of circulation to get the blood flowing and check levels, and then jump in with an improvisation. Regrettably, Dev has to leave, in order to go to work, but we continue to circulate and improvise. We come to a stop, and Victor calls "Growing Circle". After playing this, we jump straight back in with more improvisation, but come to a halt when Dev comes back and asks Glenn to help him get back into the garage. As Glenn leaves, we decide to take a break, and continue on in a moment.

A few minutes later, we circle back up again (with Glenn coming back in about 10 minutes later), and proceed to play for over two hours, without actually stopping. Most of this involves improvisation and circulation, but plenty of repertoire is called: Eye of the Needle, Third Relation, Flying Home, Thrak, Asturias, Where's the Nurse?, Askesis (twice), Growing Circle (again), and the Prelude circulation. There's also a very lovely improvisation that feeds into the first Theme, Invocation. Eventually, we close with a final circulation/improvisation.

Over the course of two hours or so, we maintain something of a continually shifting audience, with some people very happy to see us. One or two people ask a couple of questions, and are very pleased to see what we are doing. Two happy accidents, as well: Andy Cahill, who attended the beginner's course in Sant Cugat, back in July of 2009, accidentally finds us playing; and another person named Jonathan, who attended one of the former beginner's circles, about four years ago. Over all, a very good set of events.

Victor suggests that, in lieu of a regular meeting, we instead go for Indian food at a restaurant in Harvard Square, where we can relax and discuss some matters of importance. Over the course of the meal, several big things are put on the table (not counting the food), and we're able to really get a scope of what opportunities we have available to us. Once the meal adjourns (thank you, Alex and Victor!), it's back to the cars and the loft, in order to switch equipment and people to necessary vehicles, and a farewell for the night. Meeting adjourned at roughly 9:45 p.m.

04-25-2010, GCNE Meeting, The Loft

In attendance: Victor McSurely, Rick McCarthy, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, Alex Lahoski, Dev Ray. Chris is unable to attend, due to a last-minute situation with the day job.

Opening the meeting at roughly 7:45 p.m., with a moment of silence. There is still sound, however--the unit next to ours is playing Ella Fitzgerald quite loudly. Though this could be distracting, it also provides a pointed stick, as it were.

Victor begins by touching on something that RF gave him at the completion course in March, regarding areas of special study (for an explanation of this, RF has posted this on his own diaryhere), and alludes to how "performance" seems to be the direction that this circle is taking. An alternative way of putting this would be that "performance" is becoming very much a part of the circle's direction, along with the available option of "improvisation". Fittingly, several have brought LectroSonic Mouse amps, and busking is a posted option for tonight. Before we choose to do this, however, we elect to warm up and make sure that the amps are working. Victor initiates a circulation to the right, to check levels.

30 minutes later, we come up for air, from a long spontaneous improvisation. Observations are presented. At about 9 p.m., we take a short break, during which Glenn learns how to differentiate between black metal and death metal.

Back in the circle at about 10 after, we approach Morning Has Broken, again. This is the first time in a few months that we've had (almost) everyone here working on this, but progress is clear. We spend roughly 20 minutes with this, working from the intro through the second verse (same as the first), and agree to stop before the second bridge, where the key changes. Moving on, we take a few moments to revisit some repertoire we haven't played for a bit: Where's The Nurse? and Flying Home.

With another very short break, we then put our guitars away and review the morning sitting exercises that Victor gave us, the week before, and discuss some of the more inward work that we undertake. The meeting is finished at roughly 10:20 p.m.

GCNE Meeting, 04-18-2010, The Loft

In attendance: Victor McSurely, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Alex Lahoski.

Victor arrives at about 7:35, and we all head inside and up to the loft. After setting up (and returning Chris's metronome to him), we begin the meeting at about 7:45, with an unspoken instruction: when ready, begin. Delicate playing.

Roughly twenty minutes later, we step into circulation work. The work is very focused around how we organize ourselves in time, and in pitch or key; one circulation that is quickly stopped provides a great example of a clearly defined motif--how might we recognize this, and respond to it? What would follow something as clearly defined as this?

Victor guides us through several exercises. The first is simple enough: sing the note that the person before you played, and then play your own note. This proves to be a little much, so we simplify it to a Cmaj pentatonic scale. After a bit, we move to any note from Cmaj, and then singing the previous note and playing our own note simultaneously.

Next, we continue down this same rough trajectory, by having one person playing a note, and then the next three attempting to play the same note in turn, with eyes closed. (Victor gets a kick out of seeing the self-satisfaction on everyone's faces when they get a note right.) Following this, we play another circulation (key center is E, with an ambiguous key), with a noticeably more cohesive feel.

Break, at about 9 or so.

Back in the circle, Victor gives us an exercise, to be used as an extension/expansion of the morning sitting. We then take another look at Morning Has Broken, and revisit the intro, as well as the first/second verse, and the first bridge. It's clear that the primary challenge is remembering all the chords (and there are a great many chords), but this can actually be more manageable by knowing how the chord sequence fits into the key signatures of this song (Dmaj and Cmaj).

To end the meeting, we revisit circulation work one more time, with an emergent key signature of C ambiguous, and ending on a high G. Silence at 10:20 p.m.

GCNE Meeting, 04-11-2010, Brad's Apartment

In attendance: Chris Paquette, Dev Ray, Brad Hogg.

We get going a little later than usual--some aren't able to attend, and so we have to re-plan the night. Dev shows up around 8 or so, with Chris finally making it in around 8:40.

In Brad's living room, we jump in with the 16 Bar Exercise, to get warmed up. Dev points out, as we play, that we don't need to play a note louder because it's on a different string. Afterwards, he notes that, as he warmed up, he'd grin every time he hit an open string, to just let it go by.

Flying Home, next. The first time we run this feels alright, though with a couple of mistakes--Dev suggests just letting them go, and concentrating on the task at hand. So we play this again, and actually make more mistakes. Chris observes that when he adopts the practice of not dwelling on mistakes, he experiences the reverse effect and tends to be less attentive, thus allowing for more mistakes. Dev then suggests that we play through, again, and apply a division of attention exercise and count the piece out loud as we play it (in 7s, not in 4s). As we play through, this time (discounting a false start), there's a few mistakes that work themselves out, and a few new ones, but we make it through to the end. The time tends towards a rush, due to the nature of this piece, but maintaining a count through the end is a good accomplishment.

Chris then suggests visiting Morning Has Broken, so as to get a little time in on that. Dev has not worked on this yet, so Chris and Brad help him get through the intro, with its picking pattern and chord shapes. They then do a full runthrough of the form of the song (just chords, no melody), with a mind to have this ready for the next week. Dev excuses himself for a moment; in the interim, Brad tests a small arrangement idea with Chris.

When Dev returns, Chris asks to try an arrangement of his own, of a Gentle Giant song. This looks like it will be fun, once all the parts get put together, so we'll be looking forward to it, next week. Brad then asks to do some work with circulation, so we start with a free circulation (C Ambiguous, ending on a Cmin chord). Dev guides this work into some "really fast" circulating with a few choice notes, eventually simplifying into a single Cmaj triad.

"Really fast" quickly becomes 96ish, so not quite so fast, but still pretty quick. Brad quickly gains an appreciation for just how difficult the lead circulation in Opening is to play, especially the 2nd part. We trade chairs a couple of times, to get a feel for the different spots, and figure out the difficulties of each chair.

At this, we decide to call it a night, at roughly 10:40 p.m. We're all looking forward to next week.

GCNE Meeting, 04-04-2010, the Loft

In the circle: Victor McSurely, Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, Alex Lahoski, Dev Ray.

Glenn, Rick, and Brad are the first ones to arrive, with Victor arriving shortly after. After setting up, and a moment of silence, Victor shows us a couple of circulation exercises that he picked up while in Sassoferrato. As we are working with these, Dev shows up. And, as things often turn out, we opt to catch up on what happened at the course in Italy, just as Dev is ready to play.

What follows is roughly two hours or so of discussion: with the completion course having completed, and the future of this work wide open, there's a lot to be done and undertaken.

A little after 10 p.m., we take a bit of a break, to give our posteriors a chance to recoup, and then visit a couple of exercises, including reviewing the circulation exercises we tried at the beginning of the night. When asked for requests, Alex suggests Flying Home into Thrak, like we did at the gig the week before. Very good: the spaces in the polyrhythms are really present.

Concluding the meeting at 10:30 or so, we all bid adieu, and look forward to next week.

GCNE Performance, 03-24-2010, Outpost 186 in Cambridge, MA

Growing Circle
Intergalactic Boogie Express
Eye of the Needle
Bicycling to Afghanistan

"When Ready, Please Begin."

Prelude Circulation
Where's the Nurse?
Third Relation
Askesis

Circulation

Calliope
Flying Home
Thrak

"When Ready, Please Begin."

Asturias

Brad, Rick, Chris, and Chris's brother Matt (in town to check out the Art Institute, and to participate as an audient) arrive a little before 6 p.m. at the space. The foreman, who is also named Chris, lets us in, with just a reminder to lock up when we're done. Glenn arrives shortly after, and we load him in to the space, with Terry and Alex both arriving before 6:30. Glenn's drummer also arrives at about 6:45 or so, to load in his equipment. Once we've prepared the space, we begin to do a quiet soundcheck. As we're doing this (not too much as David hasn't arrived yet), Lindsay and Armand, who are closing the night for us, arrive and let themselves in. A full soundcheck, as best we can do, and the space is ready at about 8:00 p.m.

Overall, a very good night. Glenn's group, the Church of Flying Dreams, open for the Circle--this with Glenn on loops and electric/acoustic guitars and his friend Shawn on drums*. Very cool set.

Some connection "backstage" to the course in Italy, and to our respective aims. The Guitar Circle New England take the stage at about 9:00 p.m.--probably more on schedule than many groups usually do. Glenn realizes after the first song that he's forgotten to hit "record" on his laptop, does so, and we continue with the set. The acoustics of the room are a little funky, and lend to some difficulty in timing, but this is a niggling point. We even have a brief appearance of Blue Oyster Cult in the set!

The circulation in the middle of the set is a very powerful moment, as is the twinkling of Asturias. Overall, a good effort from us.

Lindsay Straw and Armand Aromin close the night for us with some traditional Irish music. They choose to run without any amplification at all, which is very fitting for this music and this room. A very fun and welcome closer. Check them out.

With the end of their set, that's the end of the night. Glenn, Brad, and Rick restore the space to a better state than where we left it, and after a bit of talk about what comes next (in a larger sense, not specifically for the circle), we bid adieu for the night. Our next meeting will be a week after March 28th.

GCNE Meeting, 03-21-2010, "The Loft"

In attendance: Alex Lahoski, Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, David Kuznick, and Terry Tungjunyatham.

Rick, Brad, and Terry are in the space first; Brad is a little early, due to Glenn being gone, so the three of us head up to the loft to get set up. A little talking, and some circulation, and a little more talking, with everyone else showing up at roughly the same time.

Once everyone is plugged in and ready to go, some circulation to set levels. An interesting thing to note is that a lot of the circulation has been drifting to D natural minor, instead of the more common C Major (which is easily available due to NST). A bit of discussion, regarding what to wear for this gig (codpieces and chaps are turned down rather quickly), times to arrive, etc. Then some practice entering and exiting the space, and we sit down to run the set list for Wednesday.

Growing Circle first. Sounds good, so we move on to Intergalactic. This is hairy by nature, and we manage to put a little extra on it. Some spot work on finding the one in a couple of tough spots, and we run it a second time, due to a complaint from Brad about mix levels, and it runs a little better. Eye of the Needle next, which sounds very good. From here, it's a pretty straight run of the setlist, leading up to Askesis, and a bit of spotwork for the unison and tricky bits.

Here, there be breaks! Some talk about logistics and photography, while some of the circle runs lead parts from Flying Home.

Back in the circle, we circulate a bit, and find ourselves switching directions and casting notes in different directions. A lot of fun work. Moving on to Calliope, with attention to the transitions in the piece, as well as making sure that the cowboy sections don't sound like we just came out of the saloon.

Flying Home: generally, this sounds pretty good, though there's a bit of funky intonation going on in the basses. We try out a dynamic idea in the F section, which seems to work well, and then use this to go directly into Thrak out. Notes for this entry read: "Flying Home --> Thrak - Wow!"

Finalizing some bits about Asturias, as well as some explanation from Alex, who was taught all the parts by Bert Lams, the composer of the piece. A runthrough sounds very good.

With some final discussion of what the schedule will be like, after the gig, and after Victor and Dev get back to the States, there's a very clear feeling, which is articulated by several in the room, that the course in Italy is very present with us. Whatever happens, the momentum that we've built up will certainly be useful for us.

But for now, we end in silence, a little after 10 p.m. Next stop, Cambridge!

GCNE Meeting, 03-14-2010, "The Loft"

In attendance: Alex Lahoski, Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, Terry Tungjunyatham.

In the circle at about 8 p.m., with some circulation to check levels. We start warming up with the 16 Bar exercise--as we're playing, Victor McSurely walks in to check on us. This is his last Sunday before flying to Italy. When Glenn asks for another calisthenic exercise, Brad suggests the 28 Bar exercise. A few are unsure on the form, so Brad begins to show it, but it becomes quickly obvious that it's alotta chords. Victor suggests approaching just the first 4 chords, for calisthenic purposes. Several people in the circle begin this exercise as 16th notes, but by the time we finish, we are all playing in 32nd notes (the tremolo part of the exercise).

Bicycling to Afghanistan, with Terry on lead, Chris on mid, and Glenn on bass. Unusually slow tempo. Some clarification on the lead part, from Victor, and a bit more of this at a more appropriate speed. Choosing to look at this, later tonight, we move to 3rd Relation. After playing this, Victor asks who in the circle was holding the tempo back, prompting a second run with attention to tempo.

Eye of the Needle. Only one person on bass, as David is not here, tonight, but well-played, with a decent balance of parts. Where's the Nurse, next. After we play this, Victor asks Brad if he's ever played bass in a band. When answered, "No," Victor advises him to play more assertively, and to listen to some bass players over the next couple of days. A second runthrough.

Askesis, next. There is a question about the clarity of "the tricky bit", which boils down to playing the parts accurately, so that the clarity becomes available. Victor also mentions how the piece was written in an hour or so, and how it was the first theme not written by RF.

Bum break. Glenn mentions that the Myspace salute didn't work, as we didn't have the entire URL of the website in the photo, and pulls out his camera. As he's arranging the shot, Victor takes a moment to ask us all to really consider what's coming up, in addition to the gig. Some form of participation at a distance with the completion course is suggested, as well as a different, less attached practice. Important words to consider.

Myspace Salute 2.0! One wonders what exactly prompted Rupert Murdoch to come up with this. With this, Victor takes his leave, for the night, with wishes for safe travels following him.

Calliope, back in the circle. There are some parts that need to be relearned in one of the leads, but otherwise, this should be good. Flying Home, next, with some clarification of both lead/mirror lead parts and bass (as well as attention to tuning).

Prelude, with Alex in pole position. One false start, due to some unintended contemporary reharmonization, and then a full run. This comes out much better than we had expected. Some discussion of arrhythmia in some parts, and another run. Intergalactic Boogie Express, next. This is a touch slower than some recordings, but the groove is much tighter--it feels like the right tempo for this circle. We address the outro chords, and then move back to Bicycling. Some more work with this.

"When ready, begin." Two parts to this, with a moment of silence in between the parts, and a longer holding of the moment after. We call it a night at about 10:15 p.m.

GCNE Meeting, 03-07-2010, "The Loft"

In attendance: Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, David Kuznick, and Terry Tungjunyatham.

All arriving tonight roughly within 10 minutes of each other. Tonight is Terry's first night back in the circle since roughly this time last year.

Beginning with a quiet moment at roughly 7:45, we begin with a bit of circulation to set levels, followed by some basic calisthenics with the 16-bar exercise. Glenn then calls Eye of the Needle. Played pretty well, with a touch of rushing in the leads. Glenn's suggestion for this piece (and as a general rule) is to really nail the transition points throughout the piece, so as to glue the parts together.

3rd Relation, next. Some rushing and open strings. We run the descending chord outro a few times, to firm that up. Calliope, after this. It sounds good, but there are some parts that are a little unclean. We work on this for a bit, and decide to come back to this, later tonight. Flying Home: a couple of problems throughout the circle, but nothing major--simply a matter of momentary loss of attention. There are some indiscrepancies in the bass part, which turn out to be due to excess tension in the left hand, as well as clear tuning problems, which are addressed.

"When ready, begin." Glenn attempts to pull the circle into Asturias, coming out of this improv, but it doesn't work, as either no one hears it amidst the rest of the circle, or no one is listening. An instructive moment.

After this, Brad asks to try an idea that he got [brazenly stole] from Tuning the Air: working on Thrak at a soft level. This gets slightly misinterpreted as "working on Thrak with no amplification", which is fine. We play through the song, and it is interesting to hear how we play when not relying on volume or force to bulldog our way through the piece. Additionally, it's also surprising how quiet some of the players play.

Glenn takes this a step further, and asks everyone to stand up and stand in a circle, facing each other, and has us play the piece again. We then work both the straight magic-chord 5s and the polyrhythms. And then, seeing as we're all standing up, and essentially unplugged, we choose to take a break.

During the break, Glenn takes the opportunity to have us all pose for a "Myspace Salute!" Apparently, in order to regain control of a myspace page, it's necessary to pose for a picture with a handwritten sign with one's personal or band name on it (depending on the nature of the page). Curious, but fun.

After the break, we jump in to Intergalactic. This is very much a "don't fall off the boat" piece, and we manage to prove it a couple times. There is a bit of rushing all around (and a bit more in one of the leads), and we take some time to tighten up some areas (the re-intro is particularly difficult, due to a very long pause).

Moving on to Growing Circle: played well. Terry suggests Bicycling to Afghanistan, as he knows the lead (though he needs a refresher). This falls apart roughly 2/3 of the way through, but will likely be ready and waiting for the gig, within the week--very good news. Moving on to Askesis: this is generally sounding pretty good, with only a couple of things that really need to be worked on (tension in the hands, and the spaces after the "tricky bit" and last verse into the outro, especially in the basses, who have a big jump up the neck).

Addressing Asturias, we recheck parts and a couple of fingerings, and then play it through. A few words about playing cleanly.

Brad asks to try a concept from the OCG II course. "When ready, begin." Not bad, from the scribe's point of view.

Rick points out that we need to run Where's the Nurse, and so we do. A couple of spots reviewed, with one more runthrough. Ending the meeting in silence at roughly 10 p.m.

GCNE Meeting, 02-28-2010, "The Loft"

In attendance: Victor McSurely, Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, David Kuznick, and Dev Ray. Alex is feeling unwell, and cannot make it.

Starting a little late, at 8 p.m., we find ourselves 7 in the circle, with the return of David to the circle. This is the first time in roughly a year that David has been here, and he is welcome back.

A light comes on, and Victor calls, "When ready, please begin."

Following this is some discussion--this is the first meeting with Victor since the Montessori gig, and he invites some comments from the performance. Dev mentions that in the middle of one of the songs, he looked out at the audience and saw a writhing mass of movement, and had been surprised by it. Victor notes that the audience--both kids and adults--were very appreciative, and enjoyed the performance very much. The energy in the room was very present and positive, but the kids were pretty excited. When asked, he also noted that there weren't too many questions, the day after the gig, likely because he is teaching them all.

There was also an official recognition of the gig coming up at the end of the month, for the non-Italy contingent ("the special performance project GCNE team!"). As this is coming up fairly soon, the decision was made to do some full circle work, after which Dev and Victor would sit out and observe (with comments as necessary).

Growing Circle, first. Eye of the Needle, following. There is some rushing going on, especially in the leads, so we play through again, with more attention to time, as well as to the dynamics in the outro.

Moving to Opening. This is played once, but with a bit of lead section work before hand. After the full runthrough, some comments are offered, in regards to the rhythm/time-related issues with this. The duple-against-triple feel comes through, occasionally, but mostly isn't quite making it, though it clearly wants to.

Where's the Nurse is next. The first time is pretty fast, probably in the 84-88 bpm realm (it feels at least as fast as Tuning the Air's recorded tempo), and the timing is a little sloppy, so we play through it again, a little slower. Much better, though dynamics aren't quite as dynamic. This leads into the Bach Prelude, which, after a false start, just about falls apart halfway through, due to dropped/wrong notes. But, we keep it together and finish it, and then elect to play it again, now that we all remember our parts. The time is still a little too jazzy, but we at least are able to make it to the end.

Thrak is called, next. Played twice (I think). Not quite as cohesive as at the gig, but not bad. A break comes after this, with some talk about how the gig will work, when we'll be playing, where it is, who will be playing. In a word, logistics.

After the break, Victor and Dev elect to stay out of the circle and let the abridged performance team do their work. 3rd Relation is up, with some rushing. Glenn stops the circle, and asks us to return to playing just the intro with the same delicacy we had approached last week. A couple instances of this, and then through the piece. This is pretty effective.

Flying Home, called by Brad. This isn't played nearly as fast as last week, but sounds a lot better (Victor's comment: "You guys are fun to listen to!"). Some talk about minor/major points of performing this piece. Before we move on, Victor asks us to circulate, which is very clearly in C Major. At this, Victor and Dev take their leave, and we continue on. Growing Circle again, with this "new" organization of personnel, followed by Nurse, with three leads and one Brad.

Eye of the Needle. With five in the circle, and five parts, the balance sounds excellent, and this probably lends to the success of this run-through. Calliope, next--no mirror lead, but it doesn't sound bad, though the lead part in the intro is overpowered by four bass parts (one player switches parts between sections).

Intergalactic Boogie Express: this is becoming unlikely for performance, though when it works, it works. It's more a problem of lead players remembering which parts go where. 3rd Relation again, to revisit this, and it does sound a little better. Asturias up next, with parts getting redistributed and learned--this shouldn't be a problem.

One last requested improv, to finish the night, and we end in silence at roughly 11 p.m.

GCNE Meeting, "The Loft", 02-21-2010

In attendance, tonight: Alex Lahoski, Glenn Hughes, Brad Hogg, Chris Paquette. Victor is in California, Rick is experiencing some un-wellness, and Dev is in the middle of a tour of the Northeast.

Everyone arrives at roughly the same time tonight, and is suited up and ready to go in a fairly short amount of time. After bringing the PA up, Glenn asks if there's any calisthenic exercises that we'd like to address. Chris explains an extrapolation of the 16-Bar exercise that he's been doing, using the middle descending section of 3rd Relation as source material. This ends up being a little confusing, so we instead use a modification that Glenn used on his Level 3: instead of playing 4 bars of each form, we cut them down to 1 bar, so the changes come much faster. We then go over some extensions of the 1st primary, including the Hammerhead exercise from Tony G. and a couple of modifications from Bill Rieflin. All interesting exercises.

We then bring up the subject of the potential gig at the end of March. Brad has put forward the suggestion of playing in Boston on March 25th to mark the anniversary, as most of the circle will not be going to Italy for the completion course. This is still up in the air, as we need to secure a venue first, before we make an official gig announcement. We run a list of songs that we'd be able to reliably play the gig with, without having to worry about missing someone for a part. A couple of old faces have also offered their availability for the gig, so even with Dev and Victor gone, this might still be a large group.

Moving on from logistics, we tackle Where's the Nurse? There's been a bit of rhythmic shifting the past couple of times that we've played it, so we move in to address those. Chris brings up a small but notable matter of ringing D strings, which is adjusted. Once more through, and we go on to Flying Home. This is played once, and fast, around 88 bpm. It is a little sloppy, but not a trainwreck (though close to it at one point), so we elect to keep that one on the "maybe" list, resolving to work on it privately.

With Victor gone, the lead section of Opening will have to be assisted by Alex. The lead team tests this out with the first chord, and it seems like it might be a viable option. File that one away, as well.

At this point, Glenn re-presents Morning is Broken, the Cat Stevens song. Working through it in sections, it's some distance from being ready, but might come together a little faster than we think. We take a break.

Back in the (abridged) circle, we play through 3rd Relation. We are still speeding up, but it's not as bad as it has been; however, there's little dynamic movement. Another runthrough, with return to the last descending section, and then on to Askesis. This falls apart in the middle, but we keep going, and end (mostly) together. Chris asks about a timing/transition issue in the bass section, and Glenn points out that there really isn't an easy way to pull off the jump up the neck. We run the piece again, and also decide to keep this one available for the moment.

For the last piece, we take on IBE. Chris and Glenn on bass, and Alex and Brad on lead. This falls apart entirely, but more due to some confusion about who is jumping where. Ending the meeting in silence at 10 p.m., we all take our leave for the night.

GCNE Performance (!), 02-11-2009, Thacher Montessori School, Milton, MA

Dev and Brad arrive a little late, due to a bit of a late start (the previous day's weather wreaked havoc on poor Dev's schedule, the day before), at about 10 a.m. The gym/hall is already set, with risers set up and Victor sound-checking Alex and Chris. A few minutes later, Dev and Brad are getting levels set, with Glenn walking in then. Some circulation work for checking levels, as well as getting ourselves warmed up.

We run a couple of bits to get used to the sound of the room; it's very live, like most gyms are, and it's a little washy. This will change once the kids arrive.

At 10:40, we head off to the "green room". At 10:50, we're on.

Setlist:

Growing Circle
3rd Relation
Victor talks, and into Batrachomyomachy (the audience loves the Toady Gerbil joke)
Opening
Where is the Nurse?
Love is Green (not played)
Thrak
When ready, please begin ==> Asturias
Prelude Circulation (moved from earlier in the set)

The kids are eating it up, but they are also squirming all over the place; with the excitement of having a show put on for them, as well as the unnecessary snow day on Wednesday, they're going nuts. With respect to a progressively rowdier audience, Victor chooses to skip the Prelude after Batrachomyomachy and go straight into Thrak, with a note to let the kids know that it's alright to cover their ears, if it gets too loud. A couple of them do, but for the most part, the audience rocks out. To the scribe's ears, this might be the tightest we've played this.

Thrak ends, and Victor attempts to calm the kids so that we can move on. This doesn't really happen, so Victor gives us the instruction, "When ready, please begin," and jumps straight in, which does a much better job of getting the kids to focus. Dmin establishes itself fairly quickly, and it turns out to be one of the better improvs we've played--a very good springboard for Victor to begin play Asturias, which has all the shape it needed the other night.

Asturias ends to applause, and we decide to play one more piece for them, the Prelude. And with that, the show is over--we stand, unplug, and walk off. A good performance.

Back in the green room, a moment of collection. Then, a few minutes later, we head back into the gym, for a question and answer session that is markedly less formal. Some good questions all around ("How much do you practice?" "What kind of guitar is that?" "What's your favorite music?" "What kind of music do you play?"*). At twelve, we bid them adieu, and free dispersal. There is a short photo session afterwards (necessary), and then teardown and restoration. Some discussion afterwards of when the next meeting is, and we all take our leave, with the exception of Victor, who has a class to teach.

Photos coming soon!

*This might seem like a silly question, but even the long-time guys have a hard time answering this one.

GCNE Meeting, 02-07-2010, 'The Loft'

In attendance: a full house, with Victor McSurely, Rick McCarthy, Chris Paquette, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes, Alex Lahoski, and Dev Ray.

Victor and Dev have just arrived from the Guitar Craft "Professionals" course (quite literally, as they drove straight from the location in New Jersey to Boston and the loft, not even stopping at home) to find Brad waiting at the door. Everyone else arrives at roughly the same time, 10 minutes later, and the circle is assumed.

A gift is presented to the circle, from RF: fresh picks! A small, kind, and mutually appreciated gesture. Very good.

The theme of the night is the coming Thursday, and as such, there is little warming up, save for a short circulation. When Victor asks the key that we were playing in, the answer of Dmaj (with a borrowed chord from Dmin) is provided--a glance back at last week's work. From here, we jump straight into repertoire, mostly playing straight through the pieces.

Growing Circle, once through, followed by Eye of the Needle. Eye comes out sounding a touch flat, but only needs a little bit of personal attention to dynamics. 3rd Relation is next, and the same thing comes up; timing isn't as much of a problem as it has been before.

Moving on to Asturias, some basic arranging is worked out (who plays what twinkle, who's going to bring it in). We play it once, and the general consensus is that the twinkle section sounds pretty shapeless. A couple of questions about small details (shaping the twinkles dynamically, a difference from recordings), and we move to Thrak. No "Lark's" section tonight, but it sounds good and tight. Where's the Nurse is next. Very good playthrough--Victor's reaction of, ". . . Well, moving right along. . ." is a good summation.

Before moving into work on Batrachomyomachy, there's a bit of mention about the fact that we'll be playing for kids, which brings up a couple of recollections about the last time the circle played at this school ("This weekend, I got a chocolate egg!" "How many strings are on your guitar?"), and plenty of laughter. The basses (which are two, and the other two that aren't leads) move into the hall, while the leads remain plugged in. In the hall, Chris and Rick work their parts, while Alex and Brad look on and offer critique when asked. After about 10 minutes, they rejoin the leads, and some spot work is assumed, mostly from the middle and onward.

Philip Glass' "Opening" is next. A bit of work is attempted on this, but after a few minutes, it's pretty apparent that we need a break. So we do, though the basses--Rick, Brad, and Alex--take to the hall to run their parts (which aren't technically demanding, but the triplets-against-duplets feel can be very challenging, especially when conflicting parts sit next to each other).

Back in the circle proper, we jump back in with Batracho, with some more extensive work on this piece. Dev has been working the lead, and is still learning a bit of the part--admirable work. At least one full playthrough, and we move on to the trio version of Love is Green. Once through.

Next is the Prelude Circulation. Twice through this, with some spot work--the rhythmic work on this is still challenging, though it's more appropriate to say that consistency is the challenge. On to Opening, again. Playing straight through the form (48 bars, twice through), there's points where it locks in, and points where it doesn't. We make it to the end, and silence pays a visit, for a time.

With some words about technicalities for the gig, we end the meeting at roughly 10:30 p.m.